In general, binding devices which form a knot and bind an object by twisting, to close the opening of an open bag have been known in the art. However, with such devices, because of their mechanism, there is a rather strict limit on the size of an object to be bound; it is practically impossible to bind an object or package or material having some thickness, such as a vegetable, flower or fruit bundle, other than bagged things. In addition, the cost of such devices has been high because of the necessity for providing a twisting step.
Also, there is a binding device which uses an adhesive tape as a binding material. However, with such a tape, the adhesion surface will be directly in contact with the surface of the substance to be bound. This may cause a hygiene problem, or if the place of work is outdoors, dust, water, etc., may adhere to the adhering surface, thereby degrading the adhesion and making it impossible to achieve the required adhesion strength. In addition, where a binding is based on adhesion, it is not easy to untie the binding. In contrast, if the binding is performed by forming a knot through twisting, the strength of the knot will not be affected by dust or water, and it is easy to untie it. Furthermore, it is possible to re-bind it by re-twisting it. For these reasons, there has been a strong demand for a device which forms a knot and performs the binding operation of relatively large and thick objects and materials by twisting. However, in the design of a device to complete a binding operation by twisting a tape, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for carrying out the twisting step, as aforenoted, thereby increasing the complexity to some extent and increasing the cost relative to a device using an adhesion tape.
In general, for binding vegetables manually, binding by twisting a tape has been used, but in such a case, the tape has been cut to a standard or fixed length in advance which is not economical. Eventually, the hands become tired thereby setting a limit on the number of objects which an operator can bind.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a small and simple binding device which winds a binding material, hereinafter termed a twist-tape or simply a tape, around a thick material or object and completes the binding operation by twisting the tape into a knot. The tape is the so-called vinyl or paper tie consisting of a soft wire between layers of paper and vinyl material.
In the following we shall explain the present invention by referring to the examples embodying the present invention which are shown in the drawings. Here we shall explain the structure and operation of a binding device which binds a package such as a bundle of vegetables manually without any power, through a simple operation of a twist and binding.